‘Duke Nukem’ Movie Producer Compares Project to ‘Deadpool’

If you grew up playing computer games in the 1990s, Duke Nukem was practically inescapable. The character (named after a Captain Planet villain) was the protagonist of multiple side-scrolling and first-person shooter games, and though he appears briefly in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, he’s yet to receive his own official Duke Nukem movie.

Hollywood producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are working to change that, and in a new interview, Form explains how they’re taking their cues from 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool and the struggle of adapting such a crass character for the big screen.

Speaking with CinemaBlend while promoting their new horror thriller A Quiet Place, Form explained how he and Fuller are trying to figure out how to make a Duke Nukem movie and where they’re looking for inspiration:

“We are working on Duke Nukem right now. It’s going to be about tone. That’s about tone. How do you nail that tone in the way that Deadpool nailed the tone? I think we have to do that and if we don’t get the tone right then we’re not going to make the movie.”

Does the World Need A Duke Nukem Movie?

In today’s social climate, the Duke Nukem is what we would call a “problematic” character. He’s a politically incorrect douche bro who treats women like garbage and revels in using offensive stereotypes. He started out as a largely silent character, but as the franchise has evolved over the years, Duke developed into a narcissistic maniac whose overinflated ego is literally used to shield him from pain from alien invaders. You might think that’s a sly commentary on the hyper-masculine cinematic badasses embodied by Schwarzenegger and Stallone, and perhaps it started out that way, but the series seems to have lost whatever satirical edge it once had. The most recent game in the series, 2011’s Duke Nukem Forever, begins with a toilet joke, twins performing fellatio on Duke, and only gets worse from there.

Form acknowledges the troubling foundation of the character, but somehow still wants to make the movie:

“You know that having a misogynistic guy in today’s world, how do you make that fun and lovable and at the same time he’s got to be an incredible badass, so those are the things that we’re struggling with and we’re going to try and come out with what I hope is a really fun ride. That’s the goal, is for it to be a really fun ride.”

There’s nothing “fun” or “lovable” about misogyny, even if John Cena is the one portraying a gun-toting, muscle-bound misogynist. Do everyone a favor: abandon this film idea, and leave Duke Nukem contained to the video games from whence he came.

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